The story of Eastern Plaguelands.
The Eastern Plaguelands are the heart of the Scourge's conquest in the Eastern Kingdoms: a sick land of grey earth, rotting trees, giant fungus and drifting orange mist. Before the plague, this was the Eastweald, rich farmland of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, with the great city of Stratholme at its centre.
When the plague of undeath spread through Lordaeron, Stratholme was where Prince Arthas made his choice. Rather than let the infected townsfolk rise as undead, he ordered the whole city put to the sword, a turning point on his road to darkness. Stratholme became the Scourge's southern capital, and above the Plaguewood nearby floats Naxxramas, the necropolis of the lich Kel'Thuzad, from which the Scourge's armies are directed.
The land is littered with the stories of those who died. Darrowshire fell to the Scourge in a battle its survivors still mourn, Corin's Crossing is a town of the dead, and the forest trolls of Zul'Mashar are a shadow of what they were. The Scarlet Crusade holds the town of Tyr's Hand in its own fanatical war against the undead, and at Light's Hope Chapel, the Argent Dawn and the Brotherhood of the Light keep the one sanctuary in the region. By the Thondroril River, the exiled paladin Tirion Fordring lives alone, waiting for the day he is needed again.
Written for this site from the game's lore. Further reading: Eastern Plaguelands on Warcraft Wiki.
